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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: U.S. Department of labor investigation results in Houston restaurants owner paying $100,000 in back wages to employees

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U.S. Department of Labor issued the following announcement on Nov. 14.

After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD), the owner of a Houston-based enterprise that operates eight Tostada Regia restaurants in the Houston, Texas, area has paid $100,126 to 438 employees for violating the overtime and minimum wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

WHD investigators found that the employer violated minimum wage requirements when it charged servers for radios that they used to communicate within the restaurant, and for uniforms with the restaurant’s logo. These deductions resulted in employees’ pay dipping below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Additional minimum wage violations resulted when the employer failed to pay workers for short rest breaks, which the law requires to be paid as work time. Overtime violations occurred when the employer calculated overtime based on servers’ direct hourly cash rates, which in some instances were as low as $2.13 per hour, instead of the full federal minimum wage.

“We will continue to ensure that employees are paid all the wages they have legally earned, particularly in restaurants and other low-wage industries,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Robin Mallett in Houston, Texas. “The results of this investigation should encourage other employers to evaluate their pay practices to ensure that they are in compliance with the law. We encourage all employers to call us, confidentially, to speak with a trained Wage and Hour professional to get their questions answered.”

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